AR9100 Dual Battery Disparity

[retired06]

Per the instructions - I would gather that after a flying session you would replace approximately the same mah into each battery. This is not the case - in fact; my last session I recharged one 2600 LIon w/1400mah and the second one was not depleted at all. On previous flights I've recharged one w/450mah and the other w/1500mah. Both bats are new and are at the same charge state/voltage at the beginning of each session - approx 8.32v. Is this normal? Based on the instruction booklet it sure doesn't seem so!

[mflander]

Are you using regulators? If the regulators are not balanced that could cause the problem. I run straight A123's into mine and the batteries are pretty much dead even every time I recharge.

The one thing I have noticed though is the receiver will not work with just 1 battery plugged into the #2 spot. I should test to see if it will work if you turn it on with 2 batteries plugged in and then unplug #1 to see if #2 will take over...

[Scott Gerber]

Not much else to add but basic info. With my A9100, I'm running just one A123 in port one with no issues and no regulator. Have not tried port one and port two with two batteries yet or port two only...


Scott

[bodywerks]

Never had that problem with A123's. I doubt it's a receiver issue, either your regs are not set to equal voltage or one is bad, or one of your batteries doesn't hold voltage as well as the other.

[BarracudaHockey]

	Quote: Originally Posted by mflander
	The one thing I have noticed though is the receiver will not work with just 1 battery plugged into the #2 spot. I should test to see if it will work if you turn it on with 2 batteries plugged in and then unplug #1 to see if #2 will take over...

Huh?

The batteries can be plugged into any two slots, battery or otherwise, there's a power bus which means all the positive pins go to the same place and all the ground pins go to the same spot. If it wont power up with that battery by itself you have another problem.

[mflander]

No not necessarily. They are not straight through to the power bus. There is something in it that acts like a batshare. It picks which battery to use and cuts one off if it is shorting or is no good. I have 3 9100's sitting at my place, all of them do the same thing.

[bodywerks]

The positive leads are directly connected, but there is a powersafe feature that will cut power through the negative wire to the lead that suffers a certain relative voltage loss or a short. This protects the other battery from failing right along with it.
But you can plug a single battery into either connector, according to the instructions:
Using One Battery
The PowerSafe allows the option of using one or two battery packs.
When using one battery simply plug the battery into either one of
the two battery connectors (BATT 1 or BATT2). Be sure to secure the
unused battery connector. Note that the open contacts of the unused
battery are not back powered (not electrically hot), however, the
unused connector should be secured to prevent it from entangling
during flight. When the system is powered using one battery a single
blue LED will constantly emit when the system is powered.

[retired06]

Bats are on FORMECO regs set at 6v. I've checked them and they are putting out 6v.

	Quote: Originally Posted by mflander
	Are you using regulators? If the regulators are not balanced that could cause the problem. I run straight A123's into mine and the batteries are pretty much dead even every time I recharge. The one thing I have noticed though is the receiver will not work with just 1 battery plugged into the #2 spot. I should test to see if it will work if you turn it on with 2 batteries plugged in and then unplug #1 to see if #2 will take over...

[Panzlflyer]

Either one of the the leads in the reciever is bad or your regulators are different.
Check them under a load when you adjust them. Unloaded voltage means nothing.
There will be a little diference in battery usage as 2 regulators tied together means one will always win tis the nature of the beast!

[Bob S]

	Quote: Originally Posted by retired06
	Bats are on FORMECO regs set at 6v. I've checked them and they are putting out 6v.

6.00 exactly? Try to get them the same to the tenth at least under a load.

[rede2fly]

i must have been mistaken

[mflander]

BW was right, I retract my statement. Please don't hurt me.

[Zeeb]

Hmm....

Mine's not installed yet but I have tested it with the four satellite rx's and for the firmware update. Not tried the single battery into the number two connectors alone, but I'll try it and see what happens.

I've got dual 2300 A123's with the 16g. output leads and EC3 connectors for that rx. I'll post my findings later today....

[mflander]

BW: I did some experimenting last night, and this is what I found:

2 of my receivers did the same thing. Would not work with just 1 batt plugged into #2 slot, but would work both batteries(both lights on) if you had 2 plugged in. If you did this, turned it on, and unplugged the #1 slot, the receiver shut off. Uh oh, that's not good. So basically if I lost power to my #1 batt in the receiver my plane be gone. 2 of the 3 receivers I have did this.

The third one however worked fine. It worked off of either one of the plug-in's, and remained working as long as a battery was plugged in, period.

So 2 receiver will be sent off to horizon this week. Thanks for the heads up forcing me to go over it again before I lost a plane. I don't know how I let this slip by in the first place!

Mike

[retired06]

Thanks everyone for your replys. The same time I posted here I sent H Hobbies a email asking the same question of their support dept. Haven't heard back from them yet. I'll post their reply here when it comes in.